This Week’s #HCWC #WCW: Mindy Kaling

Each week HCWC will spotlight a woman within the Harvard community or beyond whose work and actions we deem to be “crush worthy.” We encourage you to participate in our #WCW via your various social media platforms by sharing the women we honor each week to bring light to their important work.

Who she is: Mindy Kaling, actress, comedian and writer

Why she’s our #WCW: #WCW nominator Kate Gehling said the following: “Mindy Kaling inspires me because she’s smart, hard-working, and hilarious to boot! One of my favorite things about her is that she promotes hard-work and independence. She got where she is today — an accomplished writer, comedian, and actress with her own TV show, to name a few things — by working her way up the ranks and proving herself by pure will and talent alone. She also consistently defies limiting and sexist conceptions of beauty as a confident woman of color who is not model-skinny. In fact, she often diverts the conversation away from her looks, calling out reporters who will talk to men about their art but only want to talk to women about their appearance. She challenges flawed narratives about women and people of color and is groundbreaking as one of the first Indian-American women to make it big.”